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So The Radiohead have finally announced that they have plans to tour next year... Are people still hyped up for this? Live performances of KoLs have been pretty impressive, better than the album itself methinks, and I for one am excited about this. Just come to Aus/NZ already, ffs. Make up the carbon credits by planting a tree or something Thom.

but I dont like the idea that a music isnt good if it cant be stripped down to an acoustic version, if songs on their latest cant be then that may be a good thing showing they are actually embracing their sonic experimentalism rather than using it to dress up their normal songs

but I will probably regret it. I bought a ticket out of sorta-grudging loyalty for one of the 2008 London shows and never really looked forward to it until about two days before and, yep, they were great.

I guess that is the risk of running peoples expectations so high, anything less than amazing and people will grill you for it. I can imagine they're having a bit of an identity crisis right now, where do they go from here? I'd be horrified if I were in Radiohead, how do you stay relevant while keeping all your fans happy?

Its just the way this has transformers from a band to play The Eraser, which I'm not sure he needed as I saw him play bits from it solo and it was great into an actual collaborate band, and I think he has one of those already and it honestly just fills me with completely unjustified anger.

as for the AFP album, I'm reasonably excited about that, though i'm not exactly sure what the difference will be from a Radiohead release in terms of Thoms's input. didn't AFP play supercollider or something?

I remember so many angry INTERNET MEN around the time of Kid A/Amnesiac/Hail to the Thief who'd write long tirades about how Thom Yorke needed to cede control of Radiohead to Johnny Greenwood AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Not sure why JG was singled out, probably because he likes to rock out on his little guitar and Thom likes those silly keyboard things or whatever. ONE TWO THREE GUITARS.

I'm sure some people do more than others but I've honestly never viewed Radiohead as anything other than a collaborate effort. If it was Thom Yorke's Ego Band they'd look like The Smashing Pumpkins do these days.

you definitely feel that Ed was out of his comfort zone during the Kid A/Amnesiac period, seeing him at a bunch of shows sat on the floor glum-faced tweaking pedals. He certainly comes off as someone who is carried along with the group's musical direction rather than a driving force, but that doesn't mean he isn't important to their success.

that it was difficult for him and Phil to adjust to the new dynamic within the group. He is important, especially live, cause he does a lot of the textures with his guitars and pedals which sometimes improve the songs, ie. Videotape.
Also, I was surprised that Ed plays guitar on every TKOL track, cause when I first heard it I thought it was a return to his Kid A/Amnesiac role of tweaking pedals.
He's a great musician, underrated if you ask me, and I would love to hear some solo material from him.

I'll go if they come to Belgrade, I wouldn't miss it for the world, and I don't care how much the ticket costs!
Oh yeah:
Kid A > In Rainbows > OK Computer > The King Of Limbs > Amnesiac > The Bends > Hail To The Thief > Pablo Honey

and Radiohead's skill at doing that their entire career up to this point is really one of their charms of their live performances. Watching the video of 15 Step at Glastonbury it was much less fun without Jonny frantically hitting pedals all over the place to control the drum machine while playing guitar, cos old Deamer could just tap it out on his drum pads instead.

I'm talking about touring. I KNOW they've played with other musicians for one off TV performances. Several times. They've never toured with a string section or horn section before and I think they're all the better for it. Likewise getting Deamer in for the Basement sessions is all well and good but the suggestion of him touring with them full time is slightly less attractive to me. BUT I DON'T REALLY CARE THAT MUCH.

but yeah, i like the idea of more musicians, it only adds to the music. There ARE too many drum lines on TKOL for Phil to play live, and i'd rahter hanve someone dedicated to joining him than Jonny playing around with a laptop to mimmic it

where they get around the lack of strings and horns etc by replacing them with other instruments and it works brilliant, marking a nice separation between live and studio. They can get Deamer to play on the King Of Limbs stuff if they want, but I don't really like him playing all over the old ones. I'm not going to fucking go and kill myself if he tours with them, I'm just saying to me it'll feel like a bit of a shame that they've eventually felt the need to draft someone else in on a fairly permanant basis after all these years. Calm down, pal.

It's great seeing Jonny handle the drum machine with his feet while playing guitar on 15 Step. Also, as you said, it's a nice difference when they replace the strings and horns with guitar texture and Ondes Martenot live. I'd honestly rather watch Jonny programing the drums from TKOL on the laptop or doing it with a drum machine than have them anyone else on stage with them.

The Bends sounds like Suede with all the camp and irony removed, OK Computer is just bland- Karma Police and No Surprises ARE proto-Coldplay British arena rock, and it all sounds far too BIG. it's pretty much the antithesis of In Rainbows, which is my favourite Radiohead album. So definitely not "trying too hard" here, there are quite a lot of people who feel the same way as me, you know.

I'm not saying that it's bad BECAUSE of the music it inspired, I'm just saying that the big singles off OK Computer is just as (or almost as) bad as all that late 90s bland British indie rock. in my opinion. MY opinion. It's just NOTHING compared to what Radiohead did a few years later. Believe me, I'm not trying too hard, it's just that their 90s stuff sounds very dated and is not the sort of music I enjoy listening to.

Despite the horrendous weather, three hour wait and people pissing in bottles and chucking them, I do recall that it was rather good! I've seen them twice before (Manchester Apollo 2003 and Wolverhampton Civic 2006), so I'd had my fair share of older material.

I think the problem with Radiohead gigs is other people. There I said it.

And I agree totally. Crowds make me really sad. If they play big venues then you pretty much have to be right down the front, or you just spend the gig listening to some idiots chat, occasionally stopping (if you're lucky) for Karma Police/Street Spirit etc.

and I really enjoyed them both! Maybe it depends whereabouts in the crowd you are (potluck with so many people) but I did find the few there just to see karma police slightly irritating, but you're gonna get that with such a big band. Hoping they play slightly smaller venues this time (theatre tour like they did a few years ago) but I'm not sure what the chances of that are? Will there be less demand from the part time fans from the lukewarm response TKOL got?

i.e. that the lukewarm reception to TKOL will allow them to play some smaller venues. i was at a few of the In Rainbows shows (inc the Manchester one) and found the crowds to be pretty shit in all cases, but it's worth bearing in mind that EMI re-issuing the back cat to coincide with that tour did mean there were a lot of people there expecting the greatest hits.

I simply don't think they were trying to do what you're complaining about them not doing. Complex polyrhythms versus straight songwriting, harmonically-rich. Minimalism versus OK Computer-era maximalism. That said, I feel that this less-is-more approach suits the material.

I'm more frustrated by the songs they left off than the ones they included.

Some people like em, some people don't. Some people like the old stuff, some people like the new stuff, some people (whisper) like both? Don't really matter though does it, nobody is going to shoot you whichever route you take.

and not just a couple of London/ Manchester shows, just it all gets so expensive if you have to get trains and everything. Most bands either I don't like enough or they aren't big enough for it to be a problem, but it's Radiohead so I'll be there whatever.